Andrei Tarkovsky's adaptation of Stanisław Lem's "Solaris" (called "Solyaris" in Russian) seems to be posing the question of our connection to ourselves and other people. We invest so much in trying to understand the universe that we forget about our relationships with each other. A lot of the movie is sure to remind one of Stanley Kubrick's "2001", but it goes much further in the philosophical respect. It's the sort of movie that should give anyone a lot of admiration for the people involved, especially since the Soviet government probably didn't allow them significant resources. But the truth is that the movie doesn't need special effects. It's all about what the characters come to realize about themselves, and it's a real masterpiece. There was a remake, but I have no aim to watch that.

In this adaptation of Russian science fiction author Stanislaw Lem's eponymous novel, psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent to a space-station observing the water-covered planet 'Solaris' to investigate strange messages being sent back to Earth by the three-man crew. When he arrives, he finds one crewman dead and the other two convinced that there are other people, "guests" as they call them, aboard the station who are manifestations of their subconscious memories generated by the living planet below. Kelvin is skeptical until his long-dead wife Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk) appears in his quarters. Be prepared: Andrei Tarkovsky's film is polarising, some viewers (and many critics) compare 'Solaris' to '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) as one of the greatest science-fiction movies ever made, others condemn it as an overly-long, boring exercise in non-expository story telling (especially those who view the film after being assured that it is a masterpiece). The scenes on the Solaris station are excellent as is the acting (admittedly reading subtitles, as I did, is a step away from listening to the characters), but the opening scenes are very slow (especially the interminable drive through Tokyo substituting for either a future Moscow or a fictional city). The theme underlying Lem's book is the difficulty (or impossibility) of communication with, or even remotely understanding, a completely alien mind, so viewers expecting an explanation (or even a lucid hint) of what is happening to the crew or of the nature of the ostensibly 'sentient ocean' will be disappointed (as will anyone expecting graceful dockings of spaceships in magnificent spinning space-stations), and (IMO) the final scene is as unsatisfyingly cryptic as the end of Kubrick's opus. 'Solaris' is an interesting film but not an entertaining film and is a 'must-see' (actually or expectedly) for fans of the genre, especially those who think that they'd still like '2001' without HAL or the landmark special effects.

This is one of the stranger films I have ever seen and although I have seen several other Russian films and was not entirely put off by the amazingly slow pacing, I was left wondering whether or not I even liked the film! The film starts on Earth. It's supposed to be in the future, but how far in uncertain. What is certain is that the homes and dress look like the 1970s--not a Hollywood or European film view of the 1970s or the future--just the 1970s. At this point, the audience is confused, because although you don't know the year, the entire context for the film is missing--things just ARE and the film moves as if the audience somehow knows what is occurring and what has occurred.

What slowly becomes apparent is that there is an Earth space station in orbit over some planet. Additionally, some mystery surrounds the base and bizarre reports of things happening on the supposedly barren surface alarm some and don't seem to matter to the protagonist in the film, Kris Kelvin. He then goes to Solyaris to investigate but seems to have little emotion or motivation.

Once there, he soon realizes that the two remaining people on the station and himself are subject to bizarre contacts from the planet below. Instead of contacting them by radio or telepathically, a unique person from one's past appears to each of the three--though the only one you really see in more than glimpses is Kelvin's deceased wife, Hari. Now you know and the rest of the audience knows that this can't be Hari. Even if she were alive, she'd be back on Earth but somehow Kelvin is so captivated by her that he refuses to believe she isn't real. While she MAY be real, it is certain she ain't Hari! Despite Kelvin's desire to just lie around and enjoy reminiscing and sleeping with Hari, the other two scientists somehow think this is a bad plan, so one of them comes up with an incomprehensible plan to use Kelvin's EEG pattern to stop the transmissions from the planet. How, exactly, he came up with this plan is really vague, but at the end of the film, the apparitions on the space station stop and Kelvin decides to go back to Earth. But, in an excellent twist, you are left wondering exactly WHAT happened.

Despite my liking the ending very much, the basic premise and some of the lovely cinematography, the end product was a very mixed bag. The film was meant to be an artsy film and often spent WAAAAYYYY too long on scenes that should have been shortened in order to keep the audience awake. Now I do like longer movies and a 3 or 4 hour film isn't daunting to me, but this film should have had at least 1/2 hour taken out of it. Too many scenes show close-ups of weeds moving in the water, cars driving for 5 minutes along a highway in Japan (pointlessly, I might add) and people staring off into space. Now some of these excesses didn't surprise me (heck, I've see the Russian version of WAR AND PEACE twice--and it runs more than 6 1/2 hours in the American version), but that still didn't excuse the overly long shots. Had this not been an "art" film, critics most likely would have torn apart the film for this reason. I truly think that had it been only a 2 hour movie, it would have been better and I would have scored it at least an 8.

This one is like watching a film marathon. A pretty good film marathon, but a marathon nonetheless.